


Shiver

by Holkie



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Ghosts, Halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-12-07 16:29:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20978927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Holkie/pseuds/Holkie
Summary: This is an original story that has been bugging me for a month.  My first original story to be posted.  No blood and gore, just some ghosts.





	Shiver

Maddy walked down the dirt driveway to the road to pick up the mail. Her red ponytail swayed back and forth as she walked. She was 18, an adult finally. 

She had been living with assorted uncles (four for most of it) for the past ten years since her parents had died in a car crash. They were her father’s brothers. It was mostly alright when her favorite uncle, Henry, was still there. He was the good one and had been studying to become a police officer. He was now away working for a police department several cities over. The three uncles left were not the best. They were mostly taking care of her because of her inheritance, which she couldn’t get until she was 21. Henry had agreed to take her in because he loved his little brother and his daughter, but the others only wanted the money and thought they’d get it right away.

Her boy friend, Eric, was an artist and had gotten a scholarship to study art at a school in London, England. They had planned to move there together. Eric had traded in his round trip ticket for two one ways and Maddy had sent off for her passport. Seeing as her uncles were too lazy to get the mail every day, she thought she could sneak her passport by them and then take off with Eric and get away safely. She would have told her uncle Henry, but he wasn’t here.

She got to the mailbox by the road and for a change it was empty. It happened, but she was hoping for the passport. Eric would have to leave for school soon and they had wanted to go early to both sightsee and to find an apartment. 

Maddy shrugged. Maybe tomorrow. She headed back to the house. There was probably some chores that needed to be done and her uncles sure weren’t going to do them. Specially not while she was there.

All three uncles were waiting for her when she got back to the house. 

Frank, the eldest, asked. ‘No mail today?”

Maddy said. “No, I guess either he’s late or tomorrow.”

“Then what is this?” He threw a large, government envelope on the table. It was open and her passport landed on top.

Maddy felt a little fear creep up her spine. But she stayed calm. “A passport, an ID. It’s easier to deal with the post office and mail off a couple of documents and photos than dealing with the DMV to get an ID.”

“Don’t believe you. Where you planning on running off somewhere? Like London with your boy friend to keep all your money? We earned that taking care of you.”

“You didn’t do it very well. Besides, it was my parents’ and it comes to me in a few years. Not you. And I’m 18 now and an adult. I can travel if I want to.”

“We’ll just see about that, missy.” Frank raised his hand to hit her. 

And her cries rang out in the forest as the other uncles encouraged him to hit her again.

A few hours later, Maddy was making dinner for her uncles. Her black eye darkening as well as the other bruises. The men were pestering her to cook faster. She finally served them the food and took a small plate for herself. She ate slowly so she wouldn’t have to talk to them.

After dinner, they grabbed their cooler full of beer and went to sit on the porch to drink, talk, and drink. Maddy started the dishes as she hoped for the usual ending to their night routine. Not long after she finished the dishes, their voices slowed and finally quieted with snores at last coming from the porch.

Maddy had happened to spot where Frank put her passport. He figured to hold it over her rather than destroy it. She grabbed it and went to her room to pack a few clothes in a bag along with a few other things she valued. As a last thought, she locked her door. Maybe the men would think she was hiding from them and it would keep them from finding she had run off. She slipped out the window in her room. She didn’t want to take the chance on going out the front in case they woke up.

She took off through the forest as fast as she could go. She finally got to Eric’s place and knocked on his door. He opened it quickly.

“Oh, my god! What happened? Are you alright? Was it your uncles?” Eric exclaimed seeing her bruises.

“Yes. Wouldn’t you know the one day an uncle picks up the mail from the box, it’s the day my passport comes.” Maddy said as he hugged her. “I’m sore, but I’ll heal. They’re asleep, drunk, on the porch. Can we get out of here now?”

“Do you have your passport?”

“Yep.” She pulled it from her bag. “And a few things.”

“Good. Let me pack some things quick and we’ll head north. We’ll go something we can get the train to New York, sell the car, and take the train. We’ll spend a few days in New York City before we take the plane to London and freedom.”

“I love that idea. Now, quick. The uncles don’t sleep all night.”

Eric packed quickly and they tossed their bags in his car and headed out. 

Frank woke up and stumbled into the kitchen to get more beer and maybe a sandwich. He noticed Maddy was not in the living room reading like she usually did, but the door to her room was closed.

“Hey, girl, you hiding from me? Don’t like getting beat up? Well, if you try to run again, there’ll be more.” He tried the door.

“Why is the door locked? Maddy? Girl? Let me in,. I want to talk to you.” He rattled the door knob and when there was no answer from the room, he hit it with his shoulder. He kept at until he broke the lock and found an empty room.

He was out to the porch as fast as his drunken state would let him. “HEY! Maddy’s run off! Probably to that boy friend’s of hers.”

“What?” Joe, the youngest uncle said. “Maddy’s gone?”

They were slow, but not that slow. If Maddy was gone, the money was gone. She’d get it all and they would never see a dime. They were out to their pickup trucks as fast as they could stumble.

Maddy and Eric were almost to the freeway that would take them north when the three uncles caught up to them. For all the pickups looked like junk, the engines were prime. The men had worked on them for years, upgrading them all the time. So they were strong and fast. Eric and Maddy knew they were in trouble. 

The uncles managed to cut them off from the freeway, so Eric headed for the dirt roads in the woods. He knew a few of the roads that would lead him north to another entrance to the freeway. All he had to do was keep away from the uncles and on the right roads.

But with nighttime falling, it was hard to see which road they were on. The uncles chased them around, one popping up before them to make them turn off a road to another. Until they were finally trapped at the cliff. The road they had been on dead ended right at the cliff. There were three roads leading to it and there was an uncle on each road. They had little choices.

“Try for it! Please! I don’t want to go back there.” Maddy begged Eric.

He revved the engine of his car and tried to get past the middle pickup. But he just slammed into the passenger’s side front, smashing the headlight. The uncle’s pickup, being more powerful, pushed the car back and closer to the cliff edge. Maddy saw the grin on the uncle’s face.

She looked at Eric. “I love you, Eric.”

“I love you, Maddy.” He said and they kissed.

Maddy looked at her uncle with an angry look. “Do it, Eric.”

Eric shifted the car into reverse and then floored it. They went backwards over to cliff.

The three men got out of their pickups and went to look over the cliff. In the darkness they couldn’t see much.

“DAMNIT!! With Maddy gone, how are we going to get the money? She’s gotta sign something, even when she turned 21.” Frank raged.

“We got three years. We’ll think of something.” Joe said.

One Year Later

“It’s sad reason for you to be coming back here, Henry. I mean your niece missing and all. But it is good to see you again.” The chief of police said. “And good to have you on the force. We could always use a man like you.”

“Thank you, chief.” Henry said, sadly. “Yes, I was hoping there would be some word by now. But I couldn’t just stay so far away when Maddy was missing. I know my brothers keep saying she ran off with her boyfriend to London. But I think she would have sent me some word.”

“True, you were her favorite uncle.” The chief said. “Are you going to stay at the family home or getting your own place?”

“Own place. I never could stand my brothers for long. They’re idiots, drunken idiots, most of the time.” Henry said. “Which would have probably meant I’d arrest them most of the time.’

The chief laughed. “True, true.”

Henry headed out to finish setting up his new apartment. And who was waiting for him as he existed police headquarters, but his three brothers.

“Well, well, well. It takes the gossip mill to let us know our own brother is back in town. And a cop, too.”

“I would have been around to arrest you for something before too long, Frank.” Henry said. “Any word from Maddy yet?”

“Now, I keep telling people she ran off to London with her boyfriend. She don’t want to hear from us.” Frank said.

“I just don’t think she would with out writing me. She wrote me all the time when I was away.”

Frank got a worried look. “Really? What she say about us?”

“Just the usual, that you were drunk again on the porch.” Henry said. “Now, if you excuse me, I have things to do.”

The men got in their pickups and went their separate ways. Frank headed homeward. Somewhere along the road he saw a woman walking in the same direction he was going. Black dress with a wide skirt, black hair. He couldn’t see her face, even once he passed because of the dust the truck kicked up. He decided he was thirsty, so he stopped at a diner up head. They had a beer license, so he could get a few. Plus a juke box, so teenagers stopped there. Maybe the woman was headed there and he could get a good look at her. Her figure was nice from what he saw.

He walked into the diner. And what do you know, she was already there, talking to some teenagers at a table. She got up to a refill on her soda and he finally saw her face. A pretty thing that somehow looked familiar. He stepped in front of her.

“Well, how did you beat me here? I saw you walking a bit back.”

“Magic.” She said with a smile.

“Oh, really. And how does a man catch a magic woman?” Frank said with a leer.

“Chase me.” She took off for the outside.

Frank took off after her, beer forgotten. She was headed to a big, black, monster of a car that he knew was not there before. She got in the driver’s side with a laugh and peeled out of the parking lot.

Frank was thinking more with his dick than his head at this point, so he got in his pickup and followed her. She turned off in the woods before too long. Frank, not really paying attention to where he was going, followed her. He chased her around the woods until he lost her as he came out on an open area...right at the cliff he had pushed Maddy and Eric off of a year ago. 

“What? Where’s she go? She should be right in front of me.” He said. Until he heard the revving of a monster engine.

He turned around but couldn’t see that much with the lights from the car in his face. Until the driver got out of the car. “Miss me, Frank?”

“What? Who are you and why do you know my name?”

“Ah, Uncle Frank, it hasn’t been that long since you last saw me, going off this same cliff.” Maddy walked into the light. She changed from the black dress and the black hair into her red hair and clothes she had been wearing a year ago.

“Ma...Maddy, you’re alive?” Frank stared.

“No, I’m dead. And so are you in a very short while.” She stepped from the front of the car to the driver’s side. Maddy said. “Do it, Demon.”

Frank finally noticed the car’s license plate read “DEMON” as it revving it’s engine, spun it’s wheels and charged forward. It pushed his pickup off the cliff. He screamed all the way down.

The car slowly drove in reverse to Maddy. 

“Thank you, Demon, you are a good car.” She got into the driver’s side again, changing back into the black dress and black hair. “Now, let’s picked up Eric. We have an uncle to talk to.”

The next day, Henry’s first day on his new police force, was quiet. He got his new uniform. The new guy got the too big hat at first, with laughter from his new coworkers. Then he got a patrol around the county as his first day. Though he was an experienced officer and knew the area, it was still standard procedure for the new guy. 

As he was driving down a back road, a big, black, monster of a car blew by him, well over the speed limit. So of course he had to give chase. Next thing he knew he was pulling into the area before the cliff with the car waiting for him.

As he stepped from the car, he said. “Alright, I want to you exit the vehicle with your hands were I can see them.”

“Uncle Henry, you forget me so soon?” 

Maddy and Eric steppped from the Eric driver’s side, Maddy passenger’s. 

Henry was stunned. “Maddy? Eric? You’re...you’re alive? And alright?”

Maddy shook her head sadly. “No, Uncle Henry. We’re both dead. At the base of this cliff as a matter of fact. Your bothers put us there last year.”

“What?”

Eric nodded. “Yes, we were going to go to London together. While I studied, Maddy was going to work. So she ordered a passport. She was turning 18, she could. Wouldn’t you know the one day one of the uncles decided to pick up the mail himself, an envelope with her passport comes. They beat her up. Saying she was trying to run away and take her inheritance with her.”

“But our brother and his wife left it to her, their daughter.” Henry looked shocked.

“They still wanted. I guess it must be a lot. I think they thought they could get it from me when I turned 21.” Maddy said. “Well, I saw were Frank put my passport. When they did their usual drinking after dinner, I grabbed it, packed a few things, and ran for Eric’s.”

“We did get part way away, but they found us. Chased us around the woods until they got us here. I tried to get away, but hit one of the pickups front end.” Eric said. “Whoever it was then pushed us backwards off the cliff. The car with our bodies is still down there if anyone wants to check.”

“Oh, gods.” Henry said. “It was Frank. His pickup still has front end damage on it.”

“It has a lot more. He went off the cliff yesterday. Maybe a guilty heart.” Maddy said, with a slight smile.

“Now, if you excuse us, we still have some revenge to do.” Eric said as the two walked back to their car.

“Now, I have to stop you right there.” Henry said. “It’s my job to uphold the law.”

“Uncle Henry,” Maddy said. “We’re dead. There is nothing you can do to us. Besides, it’s our job now. “

“What?”

“We were offered a chance to get our revenge. But in return, we have to travel around helping those who can’t get their revenge and punish the wrong doers.” Eric said as they changed back into their black clothing and hair.

“I can arrest my brothers. You don’t have to do this!”

The big, black car revved it’s engine and charged forward, only to vanish as it reached Henry. He heard faintly. “Yes, we do. It’s our job now.”

Henry went back to the police headquarters and told his chief. He didn’t believe at least part of it. But they did send a team to check the cliff. Sure enough, they found Eric’s car with the remains of Eric and Maddy in it. Mostly just bones at this point. And Frank’s pickup with his body. They spent the rest of the day hauling both cars and all three remains up from the base of the cliff.

A couple watched from a distance. “We might have to wait until tomorrow to finish the revenge.”

The other shrugged and said. “We do we do. I just want my uncles’ punished for what they did. Henry won’t be able to help. They’ll get off. There is no evidence they were involved. Barely any that Frank was involved.”

“But Henry will warn them.”

“Let him. They won’t believe him and they can’t get far even if they did.”

That night, all officers on patrol were given alerts about a very large, black car with the license plate “DEMON” on it. Two people in it, a man and a woman. Didn’t help much.

In the deep, dark night a pickup with two men, screaming, flew by a cop car, followed by a large, black car. They soon turned off the main road to the dirt, woods roads. Cops tried to chase them, but couldn’t catch them. Until they heard two screams and found a pickup truck with two bodies at the base of the cliff.


End file.
